When a trio of telescopes teamed up to stare at the sun, they captured the dynamics of solar puffing. The timelapse of a puff is gently mesmerizing: not outright stunning or mind-boggling, but somehow still incredible in their understated hiccupping release of plasma.

SOHO, STEREO and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured images of the sun from different angles on January 17-20, 2014.

"Solar puffing" is a fantastic descriptive phrase that I hope makes it into the technical lexicon. The puffs started happening about once every three hours, building into a much larger eruption after twelve hours of puffing. That the series of energetic jets and flares was recorded in advance of a larger corneal eruption suggests that the smaller puffs may smooth the way for larger eruptions.

The timelapses aren't spectacular — I was hoping for a pursed-lipped puff like the mushrooms in Plants vs. Zombies, no matter how scientifically ridiculous that is — yet somehow the slow, gentle puff of bright corneal material is enough to keep me watching through each jittery loop.

The three perspectives of each telescope observing from a different position allowed researchers to build a three-dimensional model of the puffs, analyzing the mechanics of what happens when our sun starts huffing.